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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27358720">Three's Company</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovelyirony/pseuds/lovelyirony'>lovelyirony</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bisexual Tony Stark, MIT Era, Multi, Polyamory, Tony's Stupid. Very Stupid, and for tony but like. come on. pepper looks like a goddess, brief allusions to sex, natasha helped!, rhodey falls HARD for pepper, tony also falls for pepper quite hard</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 02:48:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,274</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27358720</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovelyirony/pseuds/lovelyirony</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony doesn't know he's bisexual, Rhodey doesn't mention it until Tony figures it out himself, and Pepper is a goddess who is impossible to not fall in love with. </p><p>(Or: How Tony, Rhodey, and Pepper all came together.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>James "Rhodey" Rhodes/Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/James "Rhodey" Rhodes/Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>86</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Three's Company</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/desitonystark/gifts">desitonystark</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>another prompt from desitonystark! aren't they beautiful? anyways, i hope you all have had a good day today. remember to drink water!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Rhodey first sleeps with Tony, it’s incredibly amazing. They had been talking, getting shakes late at night, and Tony suddenly asks if they can take this upstairs. </p><p>Here’s the problem: Tony doesn’t realize that you can like both guys and girls. </p><p>So when they wake up, and Tony says “You know I’m not gay, right?” </p><p>Rhodey’s kind of in shock. Because he laughs. It’s a funny joke. He literally <em>just</em> slept with Rhodey, and while Rhodey’s still a young guy, he can confidently say that Tony will probably always be in his Top Five. </p><p>Tony’s reasoning is that he still likes women. Rhodey is not completely confident that Tony knows what bisexuality is. </p><p>“You know that you can like both, right?” Rhodey says.</p><p>Tony blinks. </p><p>“Let’s not talk about this for another five years. Can you do that thing again with your tongue?” </p><p>Rhodey shrugs. </p><p>Yeah, sure, they can wait. Tony has pretty eyes, Rhodey would prefer to get lost in them. Besides, Tony will figure it out in time. </p><p>-</p><p>About three months later, Tony comes back from a meeting, strange look on his face. </p><p>“Rhodey, did you know about bisexuality?” </p><p>“Considering I’m dating one, yes,” Rhodey says. </p><p>Tony stills. </p><p>“You’re <em>dating</em> someone?” he asks. “<em>Who</em>? Why didn’t you tell me?” </p><p>Rhodey snorts. </p><p>“Tony, you are adorable. You, honey. I’m dating <em>you</em>.” </p><p>“We’re dating?” </p><p>“Considering you always kiss me and hold my hand and call me nicknames and you’ve met my family? Yeah, we’ve been dating.” </p><p>“Why didn’t you tell me?” </p><p>“I figured you’d figure it out. You also told me not to talk about it for five years. So I wasn’t gonna push my luck.” </p><p>Tony pushes his shoulder. </p><p>“Ugh, you suck.” </p><p>“As of last night, that was definitely <em>not</em> true–” </p><p>“Gross!” Tony declares. “Gross! Also, Bruce wants to know if you’re coming to the improv show. Apparently he and Thor are gonna do something really funny with some of the audience prompts.” </p><p>“Yeah, of course I will,” Rhodey says. “Wanna get dinner before?” </p><p>“Already told Nat I would. Apparently she’s bringing a new friend.” </p><p>“A friend she’s interested in?” </p><p>“No, a girl she said eviscerated all of the business guys in her class. She says we’ll like her, especially you.” </p><p>“Interesting,” Tony says. “We’ll have to see her. Any name yet?” </p><p>“I think Virginia.” </p><p>“I’m going to ask her if she has a nickname.” </p><p>- </p><p>Virginia Potts is not exactly sure why Natasha asked her how she felt about chaos. </p><p>“Why?” </p><p>“You’re about to meet it in human form.” </p><p>She did not think that the guy in the hoodie with a bouquet of flowers on front and the guy next to him in a plain white t-shirt were chaos. </p><p>At least, that’s until the guy in the hoodie flings a grape across the cafeteria and lands it in someone else’s drink. </p><p>“I’m playing God,” he announces. He zeroes in on Pepper. “Goodness, you look like a goddess.” </p><p>Pepper stills. </p><p>“You’re always like this, huh?” </p><p>“He is,” the guy in the white t-shirt announces. “I’m Rhodey. That’s Tony.” </p><p>“I am literally never going to call you Virginia, I think it’s stupid that you were named after a state.” </p><p>“It’s a family name.” </p><p>“Even worse!” Tony says brightly. </p><p>“He doesn’t mean that,” Rhodey says hurriedly. </p><p>“No, he’s definitely right,” Virginia says. “I hate it. I just don’t wanna go by Ginny because then everyone asks if I like <em>Harry Potter</em>.” </p><p>“Struggles,” Rhodey nods. “I understand. My dad wanted me to go by Jim. I wasn’t aware I was supposed to be eighty right now.” </p><p>Tony snorts. </p><p>“Sit down for now. We shall figure out your nickname in time.” </p><p>They figure out the nickname ten minutes later when Pepper is trying to shake some pepper and salt into her soup and the lid to the pepper shaker falls off and dumps the whole container into her soup. </p><p>“Pepper,” Tony decides. “It’s Pepper.” </p><p>“No.” </p><p>“It is kinda catchy,” Nat admits. </p><p>Pepper it is. </p><p>Despite the fact that she wasn’t exactly fond of the nickname, it sticks. She puts it on assignments, goes by it, and when she loses her college ID, changes the name on it to Pepper. </p><p>“So I was right,” Tony says smugly after the improv show one night. “You <em>do</em> like it.” </p><p>“You’re never allowed to brag again,” Pepper warns. “But yes, I <em>do</em> like it. Now pass me my jacket, it’s cold out.” </p><p>The weirdest part to this whole…thing is that she gets crushes. On both Rhodey <em>and</em> Tony, and she is quite sure they’re dating, although sometimes they both flirt with her, and yeah that feels <em>nice</em>. But she’s not sure if they mean it. </p><p>- </p><p>Meanwhile, Rhodey is having a Crisis. And he’s not the one known for having crises, because that is Tony’s part of the roommate contract. Tony has the crises every two months, and usually about something like his nonexistent problem with his grades or something along the lines of family. </p><p>Rhodey had a crush. On Pepper. Which he should’ve been expecting, because she’s…well, she’s herself. Pepper is most likely the most capable human on the planet, has worn high heels to a full day of classes and not complained once, and can get Tony out of the lab with absolutely no bribery, which was thought to be impossible. </p><p>So he is having himself a bit of a crisis. Because he doesn’t want to stop dating Tony. Tony’s his whole entire world, and he can’t imagine life without him. But on the other hand, Pepper could <em>also</em> be his whole entire world, and he can’t imagine life without her. </p><p>He brings this up to Tony over a lunch at the dining hall. </p><p>“You too?” Tony asks. “Thank god, I didn’t want to break up at MacGyver’s Dive.” </p><p>“You were <em>planning</em> it to be there? I like there!” </p><p>“I know. But I hate it there, so I was planning on being petty as fuck.” </p><p>- </p><p>So it goes. They both come to the mutual decision to ask Pepper out on a date. This is all sorts of nerve-wracking because they want to treat Pepper nicely but she has seen both of them at their absolutely <em>worst</em> fashion choices. </p><p>She’s seen Rhodey wear <em>neon green</em>, which is essentially a war crime in the making. </p><p>You can imagine the sort of stress they are under. </p><p>- </p><p>But it starts with asking her to an evening coffee at a little café not too far from campus. </p><p>“What’s the occasion?” Pepper asks. </p><p>“What, can’t treat one of our favorite people on earth to the best coffee on earth?” </p><p>Pepper blushes rather prettily as she sits. Rhodey gets their coffee, and Tony entertains Pepper with a new story about the weird guy on his dorm floor that keeps decorating random doors with different animation characters as part of a school project. </p><p>They all sit comfortably, talking about life and school and the stupid people in Pepper’s communication classes. </p><p>There’s an ease of silence that overtakes them. It’s forty minutes to closing. They need to say what they need to say. </p><p>“So, um,” Tony says. </p><p>Pepper breathes. </p><p>“I like you both,” she says. “And I really wanna see if you guys wanna date.” </p><p>“This makes this so much easier,” Rhodey says. “Tony and I like <em>you</em>, we were gonna ask if you would go to the movie night at the student center on Friday.” </p><p>Pepper grins. </p><p>“Of course I’d like to. Grab dinner before?” </p><p>“Unless you want me to bring soup to the movies? Of course,” Tony says, smiling. </p><p>They go out of the coffee shop with hearts a little lighter, eyes a little brighter.</p>
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